Marketing and Self Improvement Books | 14 Books to Inspire and Motivate Entrepreneurs and Business Professionals

By Cindy RatzlaffDecember 31, 2009

Recently a Facebook friend from Pakistan asked me to recommend a list of books to inspire his students both in business and personally. I asked my Facebook and Twitter friends and followers to chime in so we could send him a thoughtful list of great books to share with his students. I thought you’d like to see the list of inspiring business and personal development books that came from my request for suggestions. I’ve included links to their respective pages on Amazon.com and in full disclosure, these are affiliate links which means that if you choose to purchase them, I stand to earn an average of sixty cents. You are forewarned and the FTC is happy.

Inspirational business and personal development books
1. Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortneson. (Viking/December 2009) Greg Mortenson is the recipient of Pakistan’s highest civil award (The Star of Pakistan) for his sixteen years work to promote education and peace. The cofounder of the Central Asia Institute and Pennies For Peace, he lives in Montana with his family. http://bit.ly/4pHp7x

2. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (Knopf/September 2009) Publishers Weekly said “NewYork Times columnist Kristof and his wife, WuDunn, a former Times reporter, make a case for investing in the health and autonomy of women worldwide. More girls have been killed in the last fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the wars of the twentieth century, they write, detailing the rampant gendercide in the developing world, particularly in India and Pakistan.” http://bit.ly/8dwNEr

3. Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown and Company/November 2008) Named by Amazon as a Best of the Month in November 2008, Gladwell poses this provocative question: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? He concludes that super achievers don’t just happen, “they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.” Examining famous “outliers” from Mozart to Bill Gates, he lays out his theory that high achievers know how to take advantage of opportunity and concludes “some [are] just plain lucky.” http://bit.ly/6Cni9V

3. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books/2002) This is a terrific book detailing how marketing ideas become mainstream ideas and just exactly who and what contribute to an idea going from a small circle of adopters to a massive movement. This was a major bestseller and “tipping point” became a part of the lexicon we still use to describe an idea or product becoming a mega success. http://bit.ly/7fVRF0

4. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (Back Bay Books/April 2007) This international bestseller details the power of trusting your own instincts in business and learning to listen to that quiet voice that affirms the perfect idea (or warns you about an imperfect idea) in a blink. http://bit.ly/70SfmJ

5. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey (Free Press/2004 15th anniversary edition) International bestseller for more than 15 years on specific work habits most successful people share and how you, too, can develop those habits. http://bit.ly/6NqQQW

6. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons/September 2008)
Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective. The message in Who Moved My Cheese? is that in order to survive change you need to take action because inaction means death. Who Moved My Cheese? is a very short parable with a simple message that will stay with you long after the hour it takes to read this book. Once again, this book title became a part of our lexicon and is especially poignant and useful during this economic downturn as hundreds of thousands of unemployed realize that some, indeed, moved their cheese. In fact, their cheese may never come back and they’d better learn to eat wheat. http://bit.ly/5povmK

7. Fearless: Creating the Courage to Change the Things you Can by Steve Chandler (Robert D. Reed/July 2008) Chandler’s book delves into the ways in which fear of money, relationships and even death can keep one from living up to their true potential and attaining success. http://bit.ly/6xEELQ

8. 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself by Steve Chandler (Career Press/September 2004) motivational speaker Steve Chandler helps you create an action plan for living your vision in business and in life and suggests 100 ideas to positively change the way you think and act. http://bit.ly/7YGaIY

9. Make a Name for Yourself: Eight Steps Every Woman Needs to Create a Personal Brand Strategy for Success by Robin Fisher Roffer (Broadway/January 2008) Roffer’s personal brand building strategies begin with identifying your extraordinary attributes, thinking about your values and passions, and learning how to use them to build a successful and fulfilling professional life. http://bit.ly/4Ov8He

10. Pour Your Heart Into it: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz. (Hyperion/January 1999) Amazon.com says “Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a manager, a marketer, or a curious Starbucks loyalist, Pour Your Heart into It will let you in on the revolutionary Starbucks venture. CEO Howard Schultz recounts the company’s rise in 24 chapters, each of which illustrates such core values as “Winning at the expense of employees is not victory at all.” http://bit.ly/7sNOn7

11. Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk (HarperStudio/October 2009) Vaynerchuk built his family business from a successful $4 million a year to a $50 a year business by tapping into his passion and his predisposition for entertaining personal engagement. He is a social media success story. http://bit.ly/8qKQiv

12. The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch From Amazon.com’s review: “When Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, was asked to give such a lecture, he didn’t have to imagine it as his last, since he had recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. But the lecture he gave–“Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”–wasn’t about dying. It was about the importance of overcoming obstacles, of enabling the dreams of others, of seizing every moment (because “time is all you have…and you may find one day that you have less than you think”). It was a summation of everything Randy had come to believe. It was about living. In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form. It is a book that will be shared for generations to come.” http://bit.ly/80umwz

13. Business Fitness: The Power to Succeed–Your Way by Dawn Lennon (Glenbridge Pub Ltd/June 2007) Focusing on four private moves; staying well, staying focused, staying current and staying connected and three public ones, attracting a following, taking the lead and implementing new ideas, Lennon lays out a logical, practical and replicable business strategy for large or small companies alike. http://bit.ly/60RWyK

14. Just Who Will You Be? By Maria Shriver (Hyperion/April 2008 Edition) An inspiration and intimate meditation that urges us to ask ourselves not what we want to be but rather who we want to be, at every different stage of our lives. http://bit.ly/6BELFJ

This is by no means a comprehensive list of inspirational, motivational and instructional books to recommend to students of business and life, but merely represents the responses I received from all of you. I’m sure there are additional books you’d love to see on this list. Post them here so we can all discover new inspiration or rediscover old friends.

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About Cindy Ratzlaff

Cindy Ratzlaff was named to the Forbes“20 Best Branded Women on Twitter” list and Forbes Woman called her one of the “Most Influential Women Tweeting about Entrepreneurship.”

During her 20-plus years as a publishing executive, Cindy created branded marketing and PR campaigns that ushered more than 200 books onto the New York Times bestseller lists. She was named to the Ad Age Marketing 50 list for the launch campaign behind The South Beach Diet.

She is the author of three books, and her essays on happiness have appeared on Oprah.com, CNN.com and her articles on social marketing have can be read on Business Insider. She speaks to conferences such as BookExpo America, Pennsylvania Conference for Women, Romance Writers of America, Ernst & Young, Garden Writers Association, Texas Conference for Women, United Way’s Ignite Leadership Network, Massachusetts Conference for Women, and more on the topics of happiness, personal branding and creating a digital footprint.

She engages daily with more than 450,000 people through her popular Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blog sites.